Wild As A Sceptile: A Tarzan Pokemon Story
by LaPonderosa
Summary: Deep in the unmapped jungles of Hoenn, a plane crash strands a young couple and their infant daughter. When a rampaging invasive Pokemon kills the couple, a female sceptile finds the orphaned child and raises it as her own. But one day, a young boy and his Gym Leader father discover them, and everyone's worlds are changed forever. Rated T for some romance and violence. Enjoy!
1. Prologue: Professor Birch's Research Log

**August 29, 2013**

**Day 37**

**Unknown Route, NE Hoenn**

**Prof. Harrison Birch**

**Daily Log, 4:35 p.m.**

_It has been over a month since I first ventured into the tropical northeastern region of Hoenn. I am surrounded by deep jungle, rich in vibrant Pokémon. There are thousands of plant varieties here as well; including several previously undiscovered species of berries that have been added to my database._

_I have two reasons for being in such a remote, untraveled area – my research reason and my real reason. My research reason, which was necessary in order to obtain the grant money for this trip, is that I am studying how humidity levels affect the growth of brelooms' toxic spores. It is certainly not the most interesting research project in the world, although the breloom populations are quite numerous and my daily data can be recorded quickly. This is important, because it gives me free time to pursue my real reason for being here. And it, unlike my breloom research, is far more difficult._

_Also, unlike brelooms, wild sceptile are a rare sight in these jungles. They live in large groups, but are extremely elusive and have complex migration patterns that vary from year to year. I've spent nearly a decade researching the local populations near Littleroot Town, but they are far smaller and easier to track. Plus, they do not require traipsing through a massive jungle for weeks on end._

_My knowledge of their language is very basic, which makes communicating with the handful of sceptile I've managed to come into contact with difficult. But today I finally had a breakthrough. High in the trees, a large reptilian creature was foraging for berries. I kindly offered it one, and managed to convince it that I meant no harm. They are very flighty creatures, and I was amazed at this one's willingness to speak with me._

_It was a young female, just barely evolved into her full form, with her branch-like tail still soft and the seedpods on her back still budding. As excited as I was to speak with her, I still didn't expect her to know anything about the jungle girl. But she did._

_"Sc-scep-ep-tile-scep," she spoke in her native tongue. _

_She hadn't seen the girl in years. _

_Yet the jungle girl isn't a girl anymore, I thought to myself. I thanked the sceptile for her help, and as she wandered off, I sat down on a fallen log and began to think. She'd be as old as I am, and likely gnarled beyond her years from a rigid life. Yet, with that sceptile's brief words, I have lost almost all hope of ever finding her. She could have returned to civilization. She could be dead. She could still be out there, swinging through the trees like she did at seventeen._

_I have decided to pack up tonight and head home. After all, I haven't seen her in almost thirty years…_

_…she could be anywhere, wandering, climbing, jumping from tree to tree, just like them._

_ She's wild as a sceptile, that is the only thing for certain.  
_


	2. Chapter 1: We're Alive

"_EVERYBODY HANG ON!_"

Those words continued to echo in her ears, ringing ceaselessly amidst earfuls of water. Alice was floating, flying–suspended in some sort of bizarre trance. Her half-closed eyes saw brilliant flashes of white amidst a sea of aquamarine waves... moving… endlessly…

Suddenly an eruption of air and light, instinctively followed by deep gasping breaths, occurred as a young man hauled the woman to the surface of the water. She stared vacantly, dazed, as the man slowly dragged her toward a leafy shoreline. Everywhere she looked was green–green leaves, green trees, even green algae on the surface of the water.

She even dared to look behind her, at the large white mass of shredded aluminum sinking into the turquoise river. She watch the body of the plane sink first, then the wings, then the tail, then… nothing.

The rocking motion stopped. Alice felt grass, and the world underneath her stopped spinning. She gasped in relief. Charles rolled her into her back and placed his hands on her shoulders. She could see that he was panting too.

He gently placed a small white bundle in her arms. Alice stared at the tiny pink face in shock–shock that it was still alive, still moving…

The baby began to cry, and Alice cradled the little girl in her arms and gently hushed her to sleep. Her husband wrapped his arms around her protectively. They were stranded deep in the jungles of Hoenn, and the last thing that they needed was a high-pitched noise awakening the wild Pokémon in the area.

Charles dug a compass out of his pocket and held it flat in his palm.

"We're a long ways from Fortree…" he sighed.

Alice stared out at the river, still bubbling from where the bush plane had sunk. The pilot, her sister, her precious Pokémon… there was nothing she could do for them now. Tears cascaded from her remorseful eyes.

"Yes, but… we're alive. At least the three of us. We're alive."

_"Put your faith in what you most believe in... two worlds, one family..."_

Charles squeezed his arms tighter around his wife and daughter and stared out into the darkening jungle, with its lofty trees and billowing mountains off in the distance. He did not show it, but there was no English word that could describe the fear in his heart.


	3. Chapter 2: The Beast

_"__A paradise untouched by man... within this world blessed with love..."_

Hidden further in the jungle that same night, a group of large green Pokémon, roughly the size of humans, scampered across the branches of the trees like a herd of ants.

They were incredibly nimble creatures, leaping and flying from vine to vine, tree to tree, with no fear of falling or misplacing a foot. Their tails were like leafy branches, and when they stood incredibly still with their tails upright, they looked like part of the forest themselves.

_"A simple life, they live in peace..."_

A particularly bulky specimen–the alpha male of the group–stopped near a thick clearing underneath a cluster of trees.

"Scceeep, ep," his screeching warbles echoed faintly in the dense jungle air. The other followed his orders to camp there for the night, and began to bundle together leaves to make their nests.

"Tre tre tre treeee!" the adolescent creatures chirped like baby birds. They wrestled and frolicked on the branches as their parents settled down for the night. The alpha male watched them and chuckled. They were strong, feisty even–one day they would certainly be able to provide for the herd.

_"Beneath the shelter of the trees... only love can enter here..."_

The alpha male, Enitan, settled into his nest higher up in the trees, where he kept watch for predators. His mate, a slender young female, was already lying in the corner of the nest. Her slanted yellow eyes were half-closed, and her vibrant green body was wrapped protectively around a large oval object.

Her egg. Their child–who would one day lead the herd just like Enitan. The female had laid it a week ago, and it was still a long while before it would hatch. The red band around her waist had grown into a small pouch, where she kept her un-hatched baby safe during the day while the herd traveled through the trees.

But now, in the cool air of the night, she had removed the egg to give it some fresh air–and herself the ability to lie on her stomach. Enitan crept into the nest and plopped down next to her. She peered up at him with sleepy cat-yellow eyes and smiled.

"Scep," she greeted him.

They laid quietly in the darkness, conversing softly in their language about their plans for their soon-to-be-hatched child. Enitan spoke of long afternoons filled with lessons on foraging, climbing, and of course self-defense. His mate commented on how excited the younger creatures would be to have a new playmate.

Yet they both agreed on one thing – their child would be the strongest and bravest Pokémon in the entire jungle.

_"A simple life, they live in peace..."_

"AWWWAAARRRRRRRRRR!"

The pair froze at the screeching roar the emerged from the forest floor. Enitan crept down the trunk of the tree, and warned his mate to stay back when she tried to follow him.

"Tiilll ee esscc sceept!" he whispered harshly. _Stay here, and keep an eye on the others and the egg._

His mate did as he told, but craned her neck down below and watched with worrisome eyes.

The creature roared again. But this time it was much closer. Enitan stood up on his back legs and let out a screeching warning call. His sleeping herd quickly awoke and blindly scampered into the treetops, not knowing what sort of danger might be nearby. All they knew was to flee.

Enitan crouched down into one of the now-empty nests and listened for another roar.

"AWWWRRCCCCC!"

Enitan spun around.

All he saw was a flash of red and a pair of demonically black eyes before the creature pounced.

_"But danger's no stranger here..."_

The hissing cries of the terrified herd filled the air above him. Enitan attempted to slash the creature with the razor-sharp leaves on his forearms, but he was quickly pinned under the enormous beast's weight. He squirmed like a trapped snake, desperate to free his arms, but was quickly stunned by an immense pain. He managed to glance down, and saw the beast's long canine teeth tear into his shoulder.

His mate shrieked from their nest in the trees–Enitan could hear her cry above all the others. In severe pain and gasping for breath, he gave his final wish. He demanded that the herd leave. Now.

"Scee ep?" the younger males protested.

"SSSSCCCEE! Eee eep sceeptttt!" Enitan screamed his demand again.

Amidst shock and tears, the herd ascended into the trees and leapt their way toward the mountains. Several of them looked back with glassy tears in their eyes, but they pressed on.

One creature that refused to leave, however, was Enitan's mate. She crouched down in her nest, high above the trees, shaking furiously with her egg wrapped in her arms. She couldn't watch, so she buried her face in the leaves of their nest and cried.

She remained there for hours, listening to Enitan grow silent and the beast's growls echo through the jungle even louder.

Once the noise ceased, she sighed and slowly rose to her knees. She could barely hold the egg steady in her shaky claws, so she placed it in her pouch. She took a deep breath, and tried to come to terms with her situation. Her mate was dead. Her herd was gone, venturing down some unknown path. Her egg…

"ARRRCCCCCAAAAARRRR!"

The beast dangled from the tree branch as it tried desperately to get a firm grip on the nest. Its jagged claws left ugly streaks in the bundles of leaves. The female scrambled up in shock, but instead of running away, she just stared blankly at the beast, and its ferocious eyes; clawing into her nest, clawing into her heart…

It finally made its way up and gouged the female in the stomach. She let out a pained cry, but ignored the blood she could feel run down her belly and scampered down the tree. The blundering beast was left stuck on the branch that it had used up so much effort to climb onto. Whatever the strange, clumsy Pokémon was, it wasn't one native to the jungle.

Yet the female didn't stop fleeing. She swung from branch to branch, tree to tree, vine to vine, for nearly an hour until she caught sight of her herd and let out a sharp cry of relief. They immediately turned around, and swarmed toward her, grateful to see her alive.

The female was relieved. She was safe. They could tend to her wounds…

Then she looked down. She wasn't bleeding. In her adrenalin rush, she'd mistaken blood for another fluid…

It was the remains of the egg yolk, dripping from her pouch. Bits of crumpled shell floated in the yellowish slime.

The beast had not only killed her mate, but also destroyed her egg.


	4. Chapter 3: She Wasn't Afraid Anymore

The next morning, as the dewy sun peered through the jungle canopy, one of the younger males, Lekan, summoned the herd of Pokémon together for a meeting.

"Taaaiiii," his mate Abeni ushered the others into a circle around the young male.

As Lekan began to speak, solemnly, about the family's loss and what to do with such a rampaging beast on the loose, Abeni bowed her head quietly and listened. However, she quickly noticed that they were one member short, and wandered off toward the river. She knew exactly who was missing, and why.

"Scep?" Abeni searched the thick shrouds of leaves for Enitan's mate. She was worried about her, but also worried about herself. In the past, the only predators that her kind had to worry about were the huntail in the river and the occasional grumpy slaking that snored on the jungle floor. She'd never seen a beast like the one from the night before… so mindlessly ferocious, such a deep clay color…

"Scep scep!" Abeni shouted at the long figure sitting on the shoreline of the jungle river.

_"No words describe a mother's tears... no words can heal a broken heart..."_

The figure turned its head just enough to see Abeni out of the corner of its yellow eye, then turned back around.

Abeni decided not to go near her, and instead sat on a tree stump a few yards away. She spoke softly in their language, gently coaxing the lone creature into a better mood.

_"Oni, we love you. We all love you. Enitan loved you. That's why he did… what he did. But it's not safe for you to be out here by yourself. Not only is it huntail breeding season upstream, but that beast…"_

Oni raised her clawed hand, shushing her. Abeni sighed.

"Seeep scep tii…"

Oni hushed her again, only this time more frantically.

"Sceeeee eep tie ep," Oni whispered as she turned around. _I hear something._

Abeni shook her head and told Oni that she'd only imagined it, and that it was part of the grieving process, and…

Oni jumped up and sprinted down the river, leaving Abeni with her reptilian mouth open, hanging on her words.

_"A dream is gone, but where there's hope..."_

Oni was both intrigued and afraid of the sound. It was a high-pitched, long, wailing cry, far different from the infants of her kind. It could be just a baby shroomish's demands for food from its mother, or a surskit fleeing across the water's surface from a hungry predator. Or, it could be another beast…

_"Somewhere something is calling for you..."_

But it didn't sound like any of those. And Oni's mindset was too distorted by grief to care. If there was a creature in need, she would help it. And if it was indeed another beast, she would seek her revenge.

The cries led her down the snaking river, toward Yewande Falls. The boisterous gush of the falling water made Oni uneasy. She knew that the water from the river tumbled over a steep cliff–nearly a hundred feet to the bottom. If the noise was coming from there…

"TAAAAEEEEIIIIIII!"

Oni screamed and tripped backwards. She scrambled away on all fours like a krabby and gawked at the scene in front of her in horror.

Two creatures–two very dead, bloodied creatures–laid facedown like wooden planks next to the river. A small stream of blood trickled from their bodies and mixed with the crystalline water. To the north, past them, was more blood. But this blood was scattered–stained across the grass amidst large crimson paw prints. Each print was the size of a dinner plate. They led down the far side of the river and made a sharp curve into the jungle brush, next to some sort of rough hut-like enclosure made of twisted green branches.

Oni trembled. She wasn't brave enough to touch the creatures. Not only were they mangled, but they were also extremely strange. They had two legs and two arms, like her, but their skin was more of a pinkish peach color. They also had long hairs that extended from their head, and one of them even had hair growing out of its face.

Enitan had called them something. _Hew-muns_. He said he'd seen them in the southern region of the jungle once, and that was what they called each other. They were clumsy and slow, with gait was like a breloom's waddle. They crushed and trampled the delicate plants as they traveled. And not once did they ever climb a tree or swing on a vine to avoid doing so.

_They aren't meant for the jungle,_ Enitan had told her.

Oni stood up on wobbly legs and listened. The cries were very close–she could nearly feel them. But if the deceased creatures lying at her feet were hew-muns, then those cries, they must be…

She dove into the hut. It was quite cozy inside, she noted. There was a stack of dried-out wood in the corner with traces of ash, and bundles of sticks and leaves tied together into strange above-ground nests.

The cries were coming from the smallest one. Oni cautiously stepped forward and lifted the large heart-shaped leaf that covered the nest. Whatever was inside… she would find out now.

Oni had spent many long years living with her family in the jungle, and had seen many young hatch from eggs and timidly explore their new worlds. But still, she had never seen such a delicate little creature before. It was a hew-mun, yet a very small one, with stubby arms and legs and a plump white torso. Its face, however, was twisted and pink from crying.

For its mother.

Who was dead.

_"My goodness, look at you. You poor, innocent little thing. What happened to you...?"_

The baby hew-mun seemed to enjoy the sound of Oni's soft trills, and its rattled cries turned into soft mewls of contentment. The baby shook its petite arm in the air, fruitlessly reaching for Oni's shiny yellow eyes. Oni noticed that the wispy hairs that sprouted from its head were a lovely golden color, unlike the fur of any Pokémon she'd even seen in the jungle…

Fur.

Deep clay-red fur. With black streaks.

It flashed in front of her, and Oni shrieked and scrambled into a corner of the hut with the baby in her arms. The large beast-like Pokémon lunged, but one of its claws snagged on the leaves of the largest nest in front of it. It in roared in frustration and ripped its claw away, along with half of the nest, but by that time Oni had already fled out of the hut with the baby.

"AWWWRRRRRRCCCC!"

Oni carefully slipped the baby into her egg pouch and climbed into the trees. She watched from above as the idiotic beast blindly tore apart the hut, leaving long jagged claw streaks in the leaves.

It eventually emerged from the wreckage, and locked eyes with her. Then Oni realized something. The creature was a beast. A fire-colored, colossal, banana-clawed beast. But it was also a very stupid one.

She wasn't afraid anymore. She was angry. She would seek revenge for the loss of her mate and unhatched child.

Oni quickly fashioned a makeshift nest on a large sturdy branch and placed the baby inside. She stroked its golden head, and whispered in her tongue that everything would be alright. She may have been reassuring the baby, but she was also reassuring herself.

Oni glanced down. The beast shredded the tree bark like a domestic meowth at a scratching post as it tried hopelessly to climb up the trunk. It lacked the lightness, balance, and hooked claw-like fingers that Oni had. She was built for the jungle. This was _her_ jungle. She narrowed her eyes and shrieked a long, frightening war cry.

"SSCCCCCEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

_"Trust your heart, let fate decide... to guide these lives we see..."_

The beast flinched slightly at the noise. Oni took a breath, gulped, and jumped off the tree.


	5. Chapter 4: No More Monsters Now

Despite everything, Oni was amazed at how soft its red fur was.

She had landed on the creature's back, and the thud sent it into a boisterous frenzy. It leapt and clawed like a bucking tauros, but it was unable to reach Oni.

She grabbed a stick off of the ground and shoved it into the angry creature's mouth vertically like a ponyta's bit, jamming it backwards until the corners of its mouth began to wrinkle and bleed. The creature made a grunt like it was choking, and, to Oni's amazement, huffed a large plume of fire out of its mouth, disintegrating the stick into two pieces.

With the branch out of its mouth, the beast flipped over onto its back, which forced Oni to leap off to avoid being crushed. She landed on the grass with a heavy earth-rattling thud, but she scrambled to her feet and grabbed the two stubby remains of the stick.

The beast panted heavily, with small plumes of smoke emerging from its nostrils with every exhalation.

It could breathe fire. It had the potential to destroy the entire forest.

The beast lunged for Oni as she backed up toward the water's edge. Oni fought with all the vigor she had, using the short sticks to keep the creature's sharp fangs away from her. Yet the beast was much stronger and heavier than Oni, and its weight pushed her toward the gushing river.

Oni had an idea. She stalled, fighting off the beast's claws and teeth, as her feet slid closer and closer to the edge of the water. Finally, once she was about to fall in, she quickly released her grip on the beast, ducked, and fled to the side. The beast, without Oni there to support his weight, lost its balance and fell forward into the river.

Oni watched. She initially thought the beast had drowned, but its massive head emerged a few dozen feet downstream, barely above the surface. They weren't far from Yewande Falls. If the rushing water didn't kill the creature, the hundred-foot drop certainly would.

Oni crouched and watched the creature tumble down the river. She narrowed her yellow eyes and hissed like a seviper.

"SCCCCCCCC!"

She grinned. She had done it. Enitan… he would be so proud of her. She was so used to his protection, his guidance… that she hadn't realized how skittish she had become since they first mated a year ago.

Oni tossed the stick into the river. Now, she had no fear.

A feeble yelp echoed from the nearest tree. Oni gasped and darted up its thick trunk. She peered into the makeshift nest, which was already falling apart from its hasty formation, and gently plucked the crying baby from the soft leaves.

"Scccccchhhhh," she softly hushed the little hew-mun with a gentle hiss, and mumbled soft words of comfort.

_"It's alright, my child. There are no more monsters now."_

She placed the baby in her pouch once again and swung through the trees, carefully, like she had done with her egg, back to the rest of her herd.


End file.
